529 



soon abandoned. Here, as in all the moun- 

 tains of Venezuela, the ore has been found 

 to be very variable in it's produce. The lodes 

 are very often divided, or cease ; and the me- 

 tals appear only in kidney-ores, and present 

 the most delusive appearances. It is how- 

 ever only in this group of mountains of San 

 Felipe and Barquisimeto, that the working of 

 mines has been continued till our days. Those 

 of Aroa, near San Felipe el Fuerte, situate in 

 the centre of a very feverish country, are the 

 only mines which are wrought in the whole 

 Capitania-General of Caraccas. They yield a 

 small quantity of copper, and we shall speak 

 of them after we have surveyed the fine valleys 

 of Aragua, and the banks of the lake of Valen- 

 cia. 



Next to the works at Buria, near Barquisi- 

 meto, those of the valley of Caraccas, and of 

 the mountains near the capital, are the most 

 ancient. Francisco Faxardo and his wife Isa- 

 bella, of the nation of the Guaiqueries, both 

 founders of the town of Collado *, often visited 

 the table-land, where the capital of Venezuela 

 is now situate. They had given this table-land 

 the name of Valle de San Francisco ; and 

 having seen some bits of gold in the hands of 

 the natives, Faxardo succeeded, in the year 



* Caravalleda. 

 VOL. III. 



